We're getting away for the weekend, even though it might rain, we're heading up to the Anderson
Valley to stay in a fancy-schmancy old hotel where we will drink lots of great beer, good wine, and have
dinner and admire the fields full of lambs. Better yet, we'll probably tour the brewery where
they make Boont Amber
and other fine quality brews. Oh how I wish today were Saturday so we'd already be on our way
up the coast.

Your mission is to have a bottle of Boont for me, if you can find it at your local liquor store (this means you Jon).

Will Oldham gets spiritual on West Coast tour. Lucky for us here in the Bay Area, we're being graced with a bunch of shows from mister-poncho himself, Will Oldham's Bonnie 'Prince' Billie. Speaking of, a friend of a friend saw Mr. Oldham riding around an old clunky bicycle through Baltimore last summer while talking on his cell phone wearing nothing but ultra-short jogging shorts from the 1980's and an unbottoned flannel shirt. Somehow, this doesn't surprise me. The shows around here all take place in unusual places, the dates are:

Unfotunately I think I can only make it to one of the San Francisco shows, since the other small-bar gigs are on weekdays. What I wouldn't give to see him in Monte Rio, a town a visit every week doing my deliveries. Damned having to work, why can't I be in college again?

Hey, guess where I am? That's right, back at the recording space for night number four of recording. Hopefully we'll finish the drums tonight. The atmosphere here is a bit more relaxed, we're all used to the space by now and are just concentrating on the task at hand, while having a good time doing it.

So, Paul McCartney opened his tour in Oakland the other night, and of course I didn't go. I should say *couldn't* go, since tickets sold out in minutes and I didn't even know about the show until the day before. That shows you how often I read the calendars in these parts. Either way, I'm sure I couldn't afford the high ticket prices, tickets for the San Jose show were going for as much as $800 each the last I heard. I guess it's another example of rich baby boomers being able to afford entertainment I could never dream of. I'm sure it's the last time I'd get to see an ex-Beatle play live, and juding from the impressive 40 -song setlist, it would have been worth a high ticket price. To be able to tell my children that I'd actually seen a Beatle play Beatles songs live would have been a highlight of my life, but I guess it will never happen. He even played songs "The End," which I swear was for me, somehow.

In other show news, Bonnie 'Prince' Billie is playing on Tuesday at a venue within walking distance of my house. But, of course, the big Amscray show is that night as well, so I'll have to miss it. These things always happen to me.

A bunch of my friends have talked about picking up the "new" Grandaddy record, Concrete Dunes. Let it be known that this is not the new Grandaddy record. This is what the band says about it on their own website.

It has been brought to our attention that Will Records, our former label, is planning to release a "new" record by "us" on February 19, entitled Concrete Dunes. Please be advised that this album arrives without our input or knowledge. It consists primarily of The Broken Down Comforter Collection, which I have usually seen in stores for less money than Concrete Dunes is selling for. We were not involved in the decision to rerelease or repackage this album. We first saw the incredibly questionable artwork, title, and new track listing on the internet, after being given the heads up by a friend. The additional material does not merit a rerelease in our opinion, and could be considered grossly opportunistic. I think that it's probably illegal for us to discourage you from buying it, so I won't actually verbalize that sentiment. Again, at the risk of sounding incredibly redundant, we have nothing to do with the release of a record entitled Concrete Dunes. Pleasant afternoon to everyone.

I'd recommend picking up The Broken Down Comforter Collection if you're really looking for these songs. That is my public service announcement for the day. Off to drive from Villa Grande to Cloverdale up north. It will be sunny and warm, and the windows will be down.

Night number three of recording, and tonight things sound a litttle better. We're finishing up some overdubs on a song we just wrote a few days ago, haven't even played it live yet and here were are committing it to tape. It's taken a bit to get all the parts sorted out, but our new pop song is in full effect. I think this is the last night we have the space to use for recordings, have to make sure we get the drums finished and then that's that. Then will begin my new life over overdubs. Things may take awhile. Vocals seem like the furthest thing from everyone's mind. But what's most important to me is that this is finally, fun.

We're all through recording and everything is completely finished. Ha! April Fools. I think we've got drums and bass for six or seven songs, as well as some keyboard and guitar tracks that we may or may not use in the final mix. It's been pretty tiring work, mostly for our drummer who is drumming *and* engineering the entire recording. We'll be back there tonight, working late after all the office people go home.

MP3 of the week: There's only one vocal line, but it's a good one. The opening track from Jim O'Rourke'sEureka is one of many songs that I listened to over and over last week.